Antonio Pierce ripped for 'cowardly' punt in Raiders loss to Chargers

After showing maybe too much aggression on a fourth-down play early on in the Week 1 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers , Las Vegas Raiders head coach Antonio Pierce suddenly got conservative on a fourth down later in the game.

In the first quarter, Pierce and the Raiders were faced with a fourth-and-1 from their own 41 and decided to go for it. Unfortunately for Las Vegas, the offense couldn't convert and Los Angeles capitalized with a field goal on the next drive.

Then, down 16-10 with a little over seven minutes left in the fourth quarter, Pierce and the Raiders were faced with another fourth-and-1 decision, this time from the Chargers' 43-yard line.

However, Pierce decided to punt it away and trust his defense, which turned out to be the wrong decision after Los Angeles drove 92 yards on the next series en route to scoring the game-sealing touchdown.

“We considered going for it,” Pierce said . “It was a long one, it got stopped earlier in the game. Momentum. Punter had done a good job pinning those guys back. I think we had two or three punts inside the 20. Defense was a strength for the most part of the game. Keep them backed up with three timeouts.”

Pierce's hesitation was somewhat understandable considering the Raiders' failure to convert earlier in the game. But sometimes you just have to go for it, and that was definitely one of those situations.

Social media did not react kindly to Pierce's decision, as you'd imagine.